Author's Note: This chapter of Twilight's Pleasure is a bit of a somewhat-cliffhanger, so I hope you readers enjoy it. I had to do a bit of research to figure out where to put Variona's lab, but anyway, in this chapter you get a more in-depth look at Variona's experiments from a different point of view.
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Caithana Duskwhisper snorted softly to herself as she slipped through the trees of Stranglethorn Vale, taking the chance of going off the beaten path as opposed to risking a fight with a member of the Alliance or someone from the Horde who had a grudge against blood elves.
A rogue by trade, she didn't favor upfront battles in the slightest, and for all her talent in hand-to-hand combat, she much preferred sneak attacks and setting traps for her unwary prey. Her all-black wardrobe helped her to blend in with the shadows of the trees she was using for cover, and it certainly helped that the sun was setting and causing the shadows to darken even further. Just to be safe, however, she stayed stealthed as she made her way through the short cut that a troll rogue had told her about, not wanting to run into any gorillas or tigers that might take offense to her presence.
Her glowing green eyes carefully scanning her surroundings as she brushed a wisp of black hair out of her beautiful face. She was headed to Mistvale Valley in search of some herbs in order to brew some new poisons and she wasn't keen on having to fight any gorillas for the plants. Really, she wouldn't even be out in the wilderness like she was if getting the herbs herself wasn't much cheaper than buying them from a vendor. Blasted goblins, would rob you blind if given half a chance, she thought with a snort, smirking in triumph as she reached the entrance to the valley and immediately set about scanning the ground near the trees for the herbs she wanted.
She struck gold right off the bat, almost literally as she spotted some goldthorn growing next to one of the valley walls, and she snuck over, keeping a wary eye out for any easily-enraged gorillas. She grinned as she succeeded in picking the goldthorn, which was a vital component in several potions that she'd been meaning to brew, and she happily tucked the herb into one of her hip pouches.
The next thirty minutes passed by quickly as she picked several types of herbs, including one purple lotus that she literally almost tripped over as she ducked behind a tree to hide from a passing gorilla. She didn't know where in the valley she was when she suddenly felt a sharp tingle at the base of her spine, all of her senses telling her that there was magic nearby, and a lot of it. She stiffened, straightening up from where she'd been crouched while she'd been examining a flower bush for any hidden herbs, and she looked around warily. She didn't see anything at first glance, but as she cautiously moved closer to the valley wall at her back, the tingle increased, the source of the magic getting closer to her...or she was getting closer to it.
Caithana looked around suspiciously, on the alert for any mages who might be using invisibility nearby, but when she stepped closer to the cliff at her back and felt a jolt to her magic-detecting senses, she realized the source wasn't a mage. She turned around, automatically slipping back into stealth, and closed her eyes briefly as she opened her senses to the magic around her, a talent most if not all blood elves possessed, and then opened her eyes. The green glow of the orbs brightened as she realized what she was looking at: she was literally standing in front of a veritable iron wall of camouflage and other spells designed to conceal something, and her curiosity was officially roused with a vengeance.
Her quest for herbs forgotten for the moment, she set about carefully dismantling the actual traps she could now see through the magic, using all the skills she had learned during her
very
brief tenure as an apprentice mage to avoid activating the magical traps. Her curiosity wouldn't let her rest until she discovered what it was that someone had went through so much effort to hide, though at most she was expecting a treasure chest with some enchanted equipment inside. She certainly hadn't thought she'd find an actual door once she looked through the camouflage spells, and that just caused her curiosity to peak, because why would anyone go through the trouble of digging a room into the side of cliff in
Mistvale Valley
of all places?
The female rogue wanted to know the answer to that very question, and she smiled in anticipation, a shiver of excitement running through her body as she slipped through the now-revealed door. She barely thought to close it behind her, her eyes already darting around eagerly as she looked down the hallway she had found herself in. The hall was made of smooth stone all around, the floor, walls, and what she could see of the ceiling, and there was a faint light coming from a dimly-lit magic orb hanging from the ceiling further down the passageway, assisting the glow from her own eyes in lighting the hall. She could see the faint outline of several doors further down the hallway, and she decided to start at the front and work her way back, walking briskly down the hallway in order to reach the first door, barely pausing to examine it for traps before she opened it the smallest crack.
If she had been expecting treasure, she was sorely disappointed when all she saw was a large, empty room carved out of the natural stone of the cliff, though it was suspiciously dust-free. She didn't bother to look any closer at the room that that. Sighing inaudibly in disappointment, she withdrew and pulled the door closed, moving on in her exploration, the next few rooms proving just as disappointing to the blood elf, but when she looked inside the fourth room, her breath caught in her throat and her eyes went wide. So great was her stunned shock that she dropped out of stealth, her gaze drinking in the sight before her and attempting to somehow make sense of it.
The door she had opened led into some kind of lab, with a large stone table equipped with sturdy-looking restraints, and those same restraints were keeping a writhing prisoner chained to the stone table.
The woman on the table was easily recognizable as a night elf, and despite her own kind's fabled hatred of them, Caithana still flinched when the woman suddenly screamed - not in pain as she first thought, but
pleasure